Best First Friday

So, there's this exhibit at the Guggenheim right now of Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang's work. Mr. Go-Qiang works primarily in the medium of explosions, gunpowder, tigers shot full of arrows, and wolves leaping into walls. The existence of this exhibit had been a nuisance to my curiosity for a while, and Friday night I went to check it out in the most logical manner possible: amongst the masses at the Guggenheim's monthly "First Friday" late-night drinking and dancing event.

The centerpiece of the exhibit: A stop motion car bomb sculpture of sorts.


Photography was against the Guggenheim rules, but, come on! A few efforts had to be made. Here you can kind of see the tigers shot full of arrows and leaping wolves, followed by cheating pictures from other exhibits (please note gunpowder art in the background here and there) to help convey the awesomeness.




Here's the wolves commencing takeoff in New York:


And, Blammo!, the point of impact (shot from my hip from around my back while a guard was staring me down...I couldn't resist!)


Karen and Holly, my awesome art party buddies for the evening.


Which reminds me! Here's the thing about First Friday: You will be waiting in a line to get in. And sometimes, you won't get in (that's what happened to me the first time I tried to go to a First Friday a couple of years ago). Other times, you will get in, but only after spending, hmmm, about two hours in the pouring-ish rain. And it's cold, real cold. But after a point it stops being crappy and starts being funny how cold and wet you are, as seen here:



Back inside...

Bummer of the Night: So much dance music (ranging from German house to Parisian house, plus a little Kylie Minogue), so little dancing.


With one exception:


Wait, nevermind. YouTube made it too dark. If you can make out a fellow in a white shirt waving his arms around, then congratulations to you.